Why does nobody talk about reading a comic backwards?

I flipped through an old issue of Uncanny X-Men from the 80s in reverse order last week and noticed the artists intentionally hid small details in the background that only make sense if you look at it that way... Like a stray character walking off panel or a joke in the corner that builds to a payoff earlier in the story. Has anyone else tried this and noticed weird stuff the creators planted for reverse readers?

2 comments

2 Comments

jordang329d ago

Honestly, I gotta push back on @elizabethtaylor a bit here. Ngl, I think digging for hidden clues with a magnifying glass is exactly the fun part, not something to avoid. Like, sure, you drive yourself nuts sometimes, but that's half the point of reading backwards in the first place. I found a panel in an old issue of Swamp Thing where a background tree had a tiny face carved into it that was just a total non-thing going forward, but backwards it looked like the character was walking away from this weird dude. Tbh, if you're not hunting for that stuff, you're missing out on the real treat the artists left for people willing to work for it. Plus, saying it's not for every comic feels too safe to me. Even a straight linear story can get funky in reverse if you pay attention to the dumb little details nobody else notices.

elizabethtaylor9d ago

...and that's exactly the kind of thing I tripped over when I got into this years ago. The key is to avoid digging for hidden clues with a magnifying glass (you'll drive yourself nuts). Instead, pay close attention to the edges of the panels, like the corners and bottom borders, because that's where the artists stash the "backwards only" jokes. I've found a few where a background character is doing something totally different in reverse, like a guy waving goodbye that actually makes him appear first in the story. Also, try it with a series you already know well, because you'll catch the little stuff that was always there but never made sense before. It's not for every comic though, some are just straight linear stories with no Easter eggs planted.